Risk Management

The NTSB’s final report on the fatal crash of an Icon A5 in a northern California lake in May is expected in the next few weeks and the speedy investigation was aided by information provided by the aircraft’s onboard flight data recorder. Icon CEO Kirk Hawkins said in an interview at AirVenture 2017 the cause […]

At AirVenture 2017, Cirrus announced a bold new approach to training pilots new to Cirrus aircraft—including new and used SR22 and SR20 models. Called Cirrus Embark, the complimentary transition training program applies to any new Cirrus owner (including all partners in shared ownership situations) whether the aircraft was purchased directly from Cirrus or from a […]

The Global Super Tanker, a converted 747 designed to fight wildfires, has been grounded in California even as fires rage, and its operators say it’s because of “red tape” imposed by the U.S. Forest Service. “We just happen to be the biggest, fastest fire truck in the air,” said Jim Wheeler, CEO of Global SuperTanker […]

April 1, 2017, Edgewater, Fla. Cessna 170B/Grumman AA-5B Tiger At about 0842 Eastern time, the two airplanes were destroyed in an in-flight collision. The airline transport pilot flying the Cessna and the airline transport pilot flying the Grumman were both fatally injured. Visual conditions prevailed. The airplanes were part of a five-ship formation flight. Shortly […]

Authorities in Sonoma, California, are investigating whether the deployment of a Cirrus whole-plane parachute at low level was a factor in the death of the pilot. Pilot Bill Goldman was killed and his son, daughter and their nanny were seriously hurt in the crash. The SR22T took off from Sonoma Skypark on Friday morning and […]

The U.K. and Norway say they’ll soon lift a 17-month ban on the use of two models of Airbus Super Puma helicopters to service offshore oil operations. The H225LP and AS332L2 helicopters were taken off that kind of duty after a crash in April of 2016 in which the rotor blades separated from a Super […]

Ever had a gear-up landing? I’ll tell you about mine in a moment, but first, when I was assembling today’s video it occurred to me that retractable landing gear systems are quite the test of human factors engineering. And the modern trend toward high-performance aircraft with fixed gear—Cirrus mainly—is basically genius at work. I swept […]

Sound judgment is only as good as the information available, the state of mind of the pilot, and his or her ability to rationally perceive a problem. The reality of aeronautical decision making (ADM) often doesn’t fit neatly into the book solution. Nor does analyzing accidents allow us to get into the mind of the […]

Today’s blog was going to be a PSA to set straight the horrible thrashing general aviation took at the hands of yet another misguided network news feature. But, damn it, foiled again. The piece in question ran Sunday night on NBC’s Dateline and chronicled the story of McKenzie Morgan, a plucky 17-year-old student pilot who […]

A Skywest CRJ700 was evacuated on a taxiway at Denver International Airport Sunday after an engine caught fire as it was taxiing to the gate. “After landing safely at Denver, SkyWest Flight 5869, a CRJ700 operating as United Express from Aspen to Denver, experienced engine issues,” Skywest said in a statement. “All 59 passengers safely […]